Fiverr Launches AI Platform for Freelancers to Train and Monetize Custom Models

Fiverr Lets Freelancers Train AI Models on Their Own Work

Disclaimer: This content generated by AI & may have errors or hallucinations. Edit before use. Read our Terms of use Freelancer aggregator Fiverr announced a generative AI platform called Fiverr Go on February 18, that allows freelancers to train AI models on their own content and charge others a fee to use it. The AI platform also contains a personal AI assistant that is capable of enhancing communication with potential clients, handling routine tasks and offering business insights. Micha Kaufmann, CEO of Fiverr, pitched the initiative as a way of ensuring that creators receive proper control over and credit for their content. "This is about making our freelancers irreplaceable, not obsolete," he said. Fiverr also announced its upcoming Freelancer Equity Program, which provides top performing freelancers with shares in the company. The platform is making Fiverr Go available to creators working in categories like voiceover, songwriting, graphic design, illustration, copywriting, and digital marketing. However, only "top, vetted freelancers with proven track records of creative excellence" on the platform are currently able to use Fiverr Go. Alongside this, the company announced that Fiverr Go will be an open platform that will allow AI engineers to develop AI applications running on Fiverr's data, which it calls the "most extensive transactional data set in existence today." Why This Matters: Fiverr is an online marketplace for freelance services, that hosts a number of creative gig workers offering services like voiceovers, web design, SEO content writing and so on. The rise of generative AI capable of producing images and text of acceptable quality poses a risk to freelancers, as customers could easily prefer these cheaper alternatives. To top it off, AI developers train their models by scraping data off the internet, which can often include content made by independent creators and contracts. News reports last year alleged that AI giants like Apple, Nvidia, Salesforce and Anthropic used transcripts of thousands of YouTube videos without seeking consent from the creators themselves. Creators themselves are becoming more dependent on AI services, as a report from the World Economic Forum showed that freelancers were over twice as likely to use AI regularly than other professionals. Furthermore, social media platforms have been testing out AI influencers, albeit with some criticism. Meta was forced to delete several AI profiles, after users pointed out their tendency to provide misleading responses. Also Read:

Fiverr now lets gig workers train AI on their own work and sell it

Fiverr wants its freelancers to make money off AI-generated content. Credit: Cheng Xin / Getty Images At a time when AI is already replacing gig workers, Fiverr says they're taking a different approach. On Wednesday, the freelancing marketplace announced a program for users to train AI on their own body work and use it for future creative projects. The program, called the Personal AI Creation Model is part of a larger AI initiative called Fiverr Go, designed to let freelancers use AI's automation capabilities as a tool rather than be replaced by it. "It's a recognition that there's a growing demand and cultural headwind behind supporting workers and creators amid the AI blitz," Brian Merchant, tech journalist and author of Luddite uprising saga Blood in the Machine, told Mashable in an X message. "Instead of letting creators be exploited, Fiverr Go ensures they receive proper credit and compensation while giving them unprecedented tools to scale their work," said CEO Micha Kaufman in the announcement. "This is about making our freelancers irreplaceable, not obsolete." A late 2024 study from the Harvard Business Review found a "steep decrease" in demand for coding and creative jobs following the introduction of ChatGPT and widescale release of AI image generating tools like Midjourney, Stable Diffusion, and DALL-E. The gig economy is already precarious for workers since they face competition with each other and don't have the benefits and protections that come with full time jobs. Now gig workers are forced to compete with generative AI -- often trained on their own work - which can code, write, create images, audio, and video, and doesn't need to sleep or eat. It's a novel approach to adopting AI, especially since some companies have blatantly opted to lay off and replace workers with AI automation in other industries. Fiverr competitors like Upwork and PeoplePerHour have implemented AI assistants to connect customers with freelancers -- something that Fiverr also launched on Wednesday. But as far as we know, none have directly embraced leveraging genAI for its creators. "In theory, this seems to be the right way to engage AI, with workers in mind -- as long as the terms are good, approved by workers and creators, and actually equitable," said Merchant. "You do worry that this is paying lip service to creators without delivering -- as for example Adobe did with its program that offered artists compensation for letting their work be trained but really didn't benefit them much." Fiverr's AI Creation Model gives freelancers "control over their creative process and rights," allowing creators to "configure their models" and "set their prices" said the press release. The program will be available in categories including voiceover, songwriting, graphic design, copywriting, and marketing. Customers can pay to download AI-generated works created by freelancers or "contact the freelancer of an AI-generated work as a starting point for a project, as an example or inspiration, and ask for a specific service," said a Fiverr spokesperson to TechCrunch. But training AI on your own work and making money from its creations isn't free. AI Creation Models cost $25 a month and are initially limited to "top, vetted freelancers." The AI personal booking assistant is available as part of the Seller Plus Premium plan for $29 a month. So we'll let you crunch the numbers and decide whether it's worth it.

Fiverr Go Will Let Gig Workers Create AI on Their Work to Earn Money

Fiverr Go also offers access to the platform's Personal AI Assistant Fiverr, the online marketplace for freelancers, launched a new artificial intelligence (AI) platform on Tuesday. Dubbed Fiverr Go, the new platform was introduced as a space where gig workers can create an AI model in their own resemblance and trained on their data, and earn from the generated outputs. The company claimed that the platform is aimed at leveraging AI to empower freelancers, instead of replacing them. Alongside AI model creation, gig workers will also be able to use the platform's Personal AI Assistant which can chat with potential clients. The company announced the new AI platform at a launch event. Fiverr Go will act as an online marketplace for AI chatbots, where each model represents a human freelancer. Users will be able to access two tools -- Personal AI Model Creation and Personal AI Assistant. For now, the company is only allowing its "top, vetted freelancers with proven track records" to create AI models to "ensure high-quality adoption and results." Additionally, Fiverr Go can only be used for select services including voiceover, songwriting, graphic design, illustration, copywriting, and digital marketing, currently. "We built Fiverr Go to ensure creators remain at the centre of the creative economy[..]Instead of letting creators be exploited, Fiverr Go ensures they receive proper credit and compensation while giving them unprecedented tools to scale their work. This is about making our freelancers irreplaceable, not obsolete," said Micha Kaufman, CEO and Founder of Fiverr, in a statement. Eligible users can create an AI chatbot by visiting the Fiverr Go Hub. The in-house AI system will suggest the user an AI model based on their previous work on the platform. Users can also create a model from scratch. Once the process begins, the AI will gather and group similar samples of the users' work, and will be trained on the data. Freelancers can also fine-tune the output by adding more information. Finally, they can also select the prices for the AI-generated assets. Once a chatbot has been created, it will be listed on the marketplace. Buyers can tap on a suitable model, add a prompt describing what they're looking for and the AI will generate a watermarked output sample. At this point, the buyer can either pay for the output, and the final version will be delivered in three days, allowing the creator time to make any edits. Alternatively, they can also request a custom edit specifying their requirements. Freelancers will also be given access to the Personal AI Assistant which is trained on users' past conversations and is tailored to their preferences and chosen settings. Fiverr claims the chatbot can improve communication with potential clients, handle routine queries, and even provide actionable business insights. Notably, this will be a paid platform for freelancers, with access to the Personal AI Creation Model costing $25 (roughly Rs. 2,170) per month. However, Fiverr also announced that Fiverr Go will be an open platform for developers, who can build apps and products using AI models and generative AI tools.

Fiverr wants freelancers to create AI models

Emma Roth is a news writer who covers the streaming wars, consumer tech, crypto, social media, and much more. Previously, she was a writer and editor at MUO. The freelance service platform Fiverr will now let creators train AI models on their own work. Clients can then purchase access to custom AI models and generate content "with the speed of AI with the expertise of a pro," the company says. The feature is part of its new Fiverr Go suite of tools, allowing creators to "train AI exclusively on their own body of work, maintaining complete control over their creative process and rights." Freelancers can edit and set the price for their custom AI models, which are available across services like voiceovers, songwriting, graphic design, illustration, copywriting, and digital marketing. However, Fivver warns, "Due to the nature of AI, exclusive outputs are not guaranteed, and similar results may be generated for different users." It also notes that clients will own the rights to "the final AI-generated content they purchase," while freelancers can use the work generated to train their model (though clients will be able to opt out). Fiverr Go also includes an AI-powered personal assistant that creators can use to answer client questions and gather requests. Fiverr says the model is trained on a creator's previous customer interactions. The platform says only "top, vetted freelancers" will have initial access to the AI suite to "ensure high-quality adoption and results."

Fiverr wants gig workers to offload some of their work to AI | TechCrunch

Gig marketplace Fiverr wants to let freelancers train AI on their bodies of work and use it to automate future jobs. At an event on Tuesday, Fiverr announced the launch of several new efforts aimed at attracting gig workers to its platform and equipping them with generative AI tools. Perhaps the most ambitious is a program that'll give freelancers doing voiceover, graphic design, and certain related work the ability to train AI on their content and to charge customers for access. Fiverr CEO Micha Kaufman pitched the move as a way to ensure gig workers "receive proper credit and compensation while giving them unprecedented tools to scale their work." "This is about making our freelancers irreplaceable, not obsolete," Kaufman said in a statement. "We built [these new features] to ensure creators remain at the center of the creative economy." The gig market has been particularly hard hit by the advent of cheap, widely available generative AI tech. A recent report found that AI tools like image generators and OpenAI's ChatGPT have led to more competition for fewer roles, with writers, programmers, and app developers suffering the brunt of the negative effects. These jobs may not return. In an independent, slightly older study looking at gig marketplace movements over a nine-month period, researchers concluded that the trend of replacing freelancers only accelerated over time. Fiverr's grand plan to address this is what it's calling the "Personal AI Creation Model," which will let contractors configure an AI model trained on their previous work -- artwork, say, or code -- and set prices to use it. Fiverr says freelancers will retain ownership over work generated by their model, including content like song lyrics, illustrations, marketing copy, and digital advertising designs. "Buyers have full flexibility to choose between a freelancer's AI-generated work, human-created work, or a seamless blend of both," a Fiverr spokesperson told TechCrunch via email. "Customers can instantly pay and download AI-generated assets or ask the freelancer for an additional edit. They can also contact the freelancer of an AI-generated work as a starting point for a project, as an example or inspiration, and ask for a specific service." At launch on Wednesday, only "thousands" of "top, vetted" freelancers will be able to create models. Fiverr says it's using "advanced language models" and "generative frameworks" to drive the capability -- which won't be free. The Personal AI Creation Model costs $25 per month. Gig workers may not feel they have much of a choice. Opting not to participate could place them at a competitive disadvantage in a sector that's punishing to begin with. Many gig workers face economic insecurity, have trouble covering expenses and paying bills, and lack the benefits and legal protections afforded to full-time employees. Fiverr is stressing it won't use gig worker data to train in-house models (for instance, models that might compete with workers), and that the Personal AI Creation Model can be disabled at any time. "Creative work and the AI models freelancers train belong to them," the spokesperson continued. "Fiverr may collect aggregated, anonymized usage data solely to improve platform performance and user experience, but never to replicate or compete with freelancers' creative work or services [...] If a freelancer disables their AI Creation Model, they will have access to any content generated by the model and no one else will have access to it." Contractors on Fiverr who use the Personal AI Creation Model will also get access to Fiverr's "Personal AI Assistant" ($29 per month or included with Fiverr's Seller Plus Premium plan), which is essentially a customer service chatbot fine-tuned on contractors' chats with clients. Fiverr says that the assistant, which is customizable, can "provide actionable business insights" and "handle routine tasks," for example responding on behalf of a contractor when they're offline. Given the sensitive nature of some of these interactions, gig workers might be wary of allowing training on them. Fiverr hasn't said whether users will have control over which specific chats the Personal AI Assistant uses for fine-tuning. "[The] Personal Assistant analyzes each freelancer's profile, gigs, and past client communication[s]," the spokesperson said. "Freelancers can review and adjust their Personal Assistant's responses during the set-up process. After set-up, the freelancer can further configure their Personal Assistant's behavior by defining specific topics that trigger a hand-off to the freelancer, and can add or remove questions and responses that they'd like the Personal AI Assistant to answer or not answer." Complementary to its AI product launches, Fiverr unveiled a program, set to go live Thursday, that it says will give "top-performing" contractors on Fiverr shares in Fiverr the company, which is publicly traded. Fiverr on Tuesday wouldn't say how awardees will be determined, nor how many shares they can expect to receive -- or on what payout cadence. Fiverr had a market cap of around $1.16 billion as of last Friday. Share performance has been up and down in the past year, but recently, Fiverr's fortunes took a turn for the better.